Sunday dinner was the most important gathering in my family, growing up. I honor my heritage by cooking for family and friends.......This is our journey, cooking and enjoying deliciously creative, organic whole foods. Stay happy and healthy, cook for those you love, then go out and see the world!

When bacon is brown, remove excess drippings if your bacon is real fatty. Add cabbage, sprinkle with garlic salt. Toss until everything is combined. Reduce heat, cover and let cook 15-20 minutes. Gently bring the cooked cabbage up from the bottom, letting the raw cabbage from on top fall. Cover again and let cook. Repeat until cabbage is tender, soft and ready for serving, 45-60 minutes.

Nothing left, but the clean up!

Enjoy!

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Can you tell I have been having mixer troubles in the kitchen? As some of you know, my greatest cooking desires are centered around bread. I have been making bread for over 40 years. Some of it good, some of it great, and because this is real life, some of it bad...............

When my daughter was just a wee one, I was surprised with a Kitchen Aid mixer at Christmas. I used it and used it for years, as a matter of fact, when she married I gifted it to her (as it still worked great!) and bought myself a new Kitchen Aid. That mixer brought a lot of delicious food and happy times to my dining table and I knew it would for her as well.

But alas that new one (actually a reconditioned one from the factory outlet), did not work as well. I just didn't know it at the time. I assumed that because it was larger with the pull up bowl, I simply had to relearn what I needed to do. So I struggled and struggled with it. And to be honest my baking took a down turn, there was much less joy in my world.

Fast forward 12 years or so and I am done with Kitchen Aid mixers! You see one plan I have in place from the New Year is to return to baking our bread. I have been (trying?) to work on a master recipe, but the mixer was not strong enough to knead the dough. Keep in mind that the volume of flour did not come close to the maximum amount as listed in the owner's manual. But the motor continued to overheat and shut down.

Bam, right in the middle of the process. The cooling off period for the motor takes about an hour or more, and you guessed it, right about the time the dough was once again taking to the hook, the motor would once again overheat, and shut down......But it wasn't just bread, cookie dough was also a challenge for the mixer. Looking back, I have stopped baking so many things......

On Monday my dear husband was working late and helping our son with some yard work, and when he got home I let him in on the news. I had had enough, and we would no longer be mixing or making bread with the Kitchen Aid, because I had ordered this, and I can't wait for it to arrive!

And happiness shall once again be restored!

Thank you for visiting Our Sunday Cafe, as always we appreciate your time and your wonderful comments!

Welcome to Our Sunday Café, we are pleased you stopped by for a visit. Today we are offering
another delicious recipe from our kitchen. We hope you enjoy it as much as we
did…

Roasted Cauliflower with Lemon and Garlic

In the quest to eat more vegetables, I have turned to roasting. And for a couple of really good reasons. First just like with a casserole or large piece of meat, once you begin the roasting process, you are free to turn your attention to other dishes. Which for us, can often mean another vegetable. Second, roasted anything is better than steamed, boiled or baked anything. So you see, it is a win-win situation.

The ingredient list is simple, the technique is simple, the taste however is wonderful. This is not earth shattering, and there are dozens of different recipes for cauliflower with lemon out there, this is just the way we enjoy it. Oh and one more thing, the fruit of the lemon cooks into a delicious pan glaze and all that is left is the rind, seared, softened and so good with the cauliflower.

Cut cauliflower into florets. If very large, cut into halves or thirds.

Slice lemon, remove all seeds, cut each slice into quarters or smaller if desired

In a large bowl toss the florets, lemon pieces and the minced garlic with enough olive oil to moisten. Turn into a cast iron skillet, sprinkle with salt.

Roast 15 minutes, stir to turn over to coat with the oil and seasonings.

Roast 10 minutes more, carefully bring glaze sitting on the bottom of the pan to the top, while gently tossing cauliflower.

Serve.

Enjoy!

Thank you for visiting Our Sunday Cafe, as
always we appreciate your time when you visit and your wonderful comments!If you like what you see here, we would appreciate it if you
told your friends (we would love more followers!), if not, tell us. Our goal is
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Welcome to Our Sunday Café, we are pleased you stopped by for a visit. Today we are offering
another delicious recipe from our kitchen. We hope you enjoy it as much as we
did…

Honestly I have had a devil of a time fermenting food. I now believe I have over done just about everything, after all fermenting has been a preservation process for hundreds of years. I grew up with fermented foods, our Dad was the one to ferment different foods in the family. I think he was successful because he knew what to do, did it, waited the needed time and then, we ate the finished product.

Homemade Sauerkraut.

While he did check the tops of any fermentation crock currently full of food, he did not obsess about the process and wonder if all was going well. He knew and believed that it was going well. And it did....There would be a quick check for any scum or debris that might need to be removed, remove it, and be done. I have yet to learn this part of the process, the it will be fine without my interference, part of the process. Ahem, I guess I am still learning after all these years.

At this time we do not have a fermentation crock, this recipe has been adapted for the equipment we do have. Other than the open crock my Dad used, pretty much everything else is the same. I remember his cutting cabbage with a kraut cutter as he called it. We will be on the lookout for some small (very small) saucers to use to keep the contents under the top of the brine. When we find some, I will update with a photo.

Place in a large bowl, add salt and massage (squeeze the cabbage until it squeaks!) to work the salt through the slices.

Using a meat hammer, gently pound the cabbage to bruise and release juices.

Pack into a large gallon jar, repeat with remaining cabbage.

Note: this cabbage seemed very dry. So I used a mild brine to bring the liquid level to slightly above the cabbage in the jar.

One cup at a time, make enough brine to cover cabbages. For each cup of water, add 1 t sea salt, stirring until dissolved.

Cover the jar with clean cloth, and wait (the hardest part for me...). Leave at room temperature for 1-3 months. Check for debris floating on top of the brine, remove each day. Taste after 1 month, when ready, store in the refrigerator.

Update: While we did not find any saucers small enough to fit down into this jar, I did what my Dad would have done. I tried to make what I already have on hand work So (yep!) I took a white saucer into the garage and broke it into 4 pieces. I laid it down on the work bench, and took a hammer and a screwdriver to it. I am not recommending that you do this, but with honesty in blogging and all that, I am disclosing that I did. A couple of raps on the screwdriver yielded about 4 equal pieces.

The pieces were washed and then 3 of the pieces were placed on top of the kraut, in an over-lay pattern to form a solid surface. On top of the solid surface I place a flat bottom glass.

Gently I pressed against the plate pieces to pack the cabbage tightly and raise the brine to above the level of the cabbage. The glass is heavy enough to stay put, but you could add weight to the glass by filling it with plain water.

After all that, I recovered the top and now the waiting begins.

Thank you for visiting Our Sunday Cafe, as
always we appreciate your time when you visit and your wonderful comments!If you like what you see here, we would appreciate it if you
told your friends (we would love more followers!), if not, tell us. Our goal is
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Welcome to Our Sunday Café, we are pleased you stopped by for a visit. Today we are offering
another delicious recipe from our kitchen. We hope you enjoy it as much as we
did…

Ready to use garlic, without preservatives.

I have a love/hate relationship with garlic. Love love, love the flavor, but hate the clingy, sticky, papery skin. I have shared a way to store garlic in the freezer, you can see the garlic logs process, by following the link. This is a wonderful way to have garlic in the freezer, ready to use. A thin slice is (about) equal to 1 clove of minced garlic, very convenient for any cook to have on hand.

I have also shown you how to peel garlic, by using two stainless bowls. You can also see that process by following the link. I am sure you could use glass bowls, but lets be honest, if you drop the stainless steel bowls, all you have to clean up, is garlic.....

Since posting the easy peeled garlic method, I have watched a video on peeling garlic by placing the cloves in a small glass jar, capping the lid tightly and shaking. Yep, peeled garlic. Honestly I think I liked this method best. Until I tried it. For me the jar technique did not work. If it does for you, great.

You can buy minced garlic in the grocery stores, but personally I don't want the preservatives associated with that product. And while I really like my homemade garlic logs, now for my smaller family, I don't need that much garlic in the freezer. So now what?

Well the story goes like this.

While driving home the other day, in a hail storm, with traffic moving at about oh -2 miles an hour, the thought came to me that vodka is the answer. It is used for many different things, and for good reason. It does not have a distinct flavor, it is germ free and best of all, it does not freeze. But wait there is more.......

And so the thought crossed my mind, why not combine vodka and garlic. No, not for a cocktail. Instead let's make a homemade version of the grocery store product, minus the preservatives and keep it in the freezer, right there handy as can be, so that when you are cooking you can measure out what you need and return the jar to the freezer, for safe keeping until your next cooking adventure.

So that is what this post is really about.

Garlic Suspension, freezer storage
by the seat of my pants

2 heads of garlic - or more after all you can make a larger batch
vodka
1 small jar - or large enough to hold your finished product

Peel garlic, using your preferred method.

Mince garlic, using your preferred method.

Place minced garlic in the jar.

Cover garlic with vodka, cap tightly.
Place jar in freezer (the garlic freezes, but the vodka does not), until fresh garlic is needed for your next cooking adventure.

You can of course make this in any quantity you desire.

Enjoy!

Thank you for visiting Our Sunday Cafe, as
always we appreciate your time when you visit and your wonderful comments!If you like what you see here, we would appreciate it if you
told your friends (we would love more followers!), if not, tell us. Our goal is
to share relevant information that you will use and enjoy.

And now, it is very easy to sign up for Our Sunday Cafe posts
by email. You will find the form located in the left sidebar, thank you for
subscribing!

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Please Use Safe Bee Practices in Your Home and Garden.

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